Educating Ainan Has Become an International Competition

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—A few months ago, 10-year-old Ainan Cawley was looking out for high-powered sports cars on the streets of Singapore.

Now the Singaporean youngster is ogling them on the streets of Malaysia, where he has just enrolled for a three-year American degree and inadvertently added to a longstanding tussle for supremacy between two of Asia's closest but least cozy neighbors.